A lot of people are complaining about the spousal jealousy issue. For me, as both one who plays in character and a completionist, it's almost gamebreaking. However, I sympathize that it's a game created and maintained by one dev. (Go brogrammer go!) Many of the fixes I have seen are complicated and time-consuming. Others cut out the jealousy feature entirely, something that some players object to. So, I offer an easy fix that could satisfy both parties: Add in a friendship bracelet as a parallel item to the bouquet. It would function in the same manner as the bouquet (i.e. getting single characters over 8 hearts), but further interaction with the gifted bachelor(ette) would not trigger spousal jealousy. If you, instead, gift the bouquet to a single character while married, the current jealousy coding would kick in. Theoretically, it could be the same coding as the bouquet, with the shift that it would deactivate jealousy pertaining to the gifted subject.
Then what about 8/10 heart events of your new best friend? Keeping them suggestive would clash with the whole friendship thing quite a bit. Changing them is trickier and time-consiming. Just deactivate events as well?
That's...FAIRLY easy, as well. Have that item change them to "Friendship" events...where it solidifies the friendship, but there's no romance involved...and they'd have different things going on in general (but ultimately end in the same way). Make it so you can still view their romantic 8/10 heart events by giving them a bouquet...which will "turn off" the friendship mode and enter it back into the "romance" mode...but have it be so that if you either do it right after giving the friendship one, or do it before getting them to 10 hearts AFTER giving them the friendship one...have them complain about getting mixed signals and have it instead cause a drop in their hearts (unless time has passed - at least a season, OR you've gotten them to 10 hearts in friendship mode). If you hand them the bouquet after handing them the friendship bracelet...then they could display some reservations about becoming more than friends, but say that they're definitely for it. It might be a little complicated, but I do think it's the best way to take care of it. Honestly, I think the most difficult part would be taking care of the "friendship" scenes...but I think there could just be alternative scenes of the same ones, but they have been changed so it's you taking care of them "AS A FRIEND", then I don't see the problem. It's still perfectly fine for THEM to fall in love with YOU as well...it's just that they won't confess at the 10 heart scene or anything of that nature, and it would exclude any actual romantic actions like kissing and stuff (Maru's kiss on the cheek could still happen, though). A lot of those scenes (at least the female ones) could be dealt with by a friend OR a lover/boyfriend/girlfriend/partner/whateveryouwannacallit as well...so...I don't see the problem with just changing the romantic actions into something platonic (but still maybe hinting at their feelings towards the player instead of being blatant about it) instead. ^^
So, dev needs to code in an alternative relationship path, items and all, scenes pertaining said path for all bachelor/ettes, and on top of that, fallback to the romance path? Not so easy fix after all. Do note, I like the possibility to be "just a friend" in principle, but it is definitely not an fast and easy solution you see it. Personally, I'd still vote for harem path instead and then juggle all the interspousal interactions and resulting entertaining scenes
Just remove the events, for the 10 hearts, friendship version of a bouquet still happens but there is no last scene triggers. Most of the villagers only have 1-3 scenes at most anyway, so the bachelors/bachelorettes already have plenty.
Well, it also depends on how HARD it is for him to code this stuff. It could actually be rather simple for him to do a lot of it now that he's set up the engine and all. ^^ I'd like a harem end as well, just so I can have kids with all of them at once and NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT WHO TO CHOOSE CAUSE THAT IS SO HARD FOR ME CAUSE I LOVE THEM ALL! Yeah, just not allowing the 10 heart event would be fine (unless you go and give them a bouquet later)...the 8 heart events are basically "really great friends but obvious they have feelings for you" sorts of events...but I don't think any of them have them do anything that friends wouldn't do in the scenes, so it's probably fine to leave them alone. ^^ Just make it so that the 10 heart event can activate again like...a week or two after giving them the bouquet...or something like that. There's probably not really any need to do a new 10 heart scene for them...though it'd certainly be nice. ^^
I like all the ideas.. But how about keeping it as simple as possible. If no bouquet is given... you can still get someone to 10 hearts, just the last event will not trigger.. thus on both accounts.. No Jealousy.
No need to code in a whole alternate relationship path. Deactivate the 8/10 and 10/10 scenes if bracelet is given. Have a platonic response that appears without a cutscene. If, at a later date (when fixes aren't so demanding), platonic scenes for 8/10 and 10/10 are added, then cool. If not, like Jumboshrimp mentioned, there's already a relatively high number of scenes as it is. If the bouquet is later given, it would retrigger the romance option and the jealousy scenario. If "Bouquet" = true, then "Jealousy" = true If "Bouquet" = false, then "Jealousy" = false. It would be relatively simple, especially compared to harems which would rewrite the entire relationship scenario and married life. Adding one item that deactivates the 8/10, 10/10 relationship scene string and deactivates the jealousy string. A preexisting item would reactivate both of those things. One new line of dialogue per bachelor(ette) would be needed, too, but that's splitting hairs. My fix doesn't advocate additional cutscenes, coding for harems, or even necessarily "Bracelet then Bouquet" = mixed signals scenarios. My intent is to offer a simple fix that stays largely within the current coded system and can be built upon. Any other additions (platonic scenes, mixed signals, harems, divorce, polygamy, and the rest of the plethora of suggestions) can be added on later, as needed/desired/possible when time allows.
I don't think it's really necessary to get rid of the 8 heart event, though. However, getting rid of the 10 heart is a good way to do that...and then having it simply be accessible again by giving the bouquet at a later date. I just think it would be nice if there was some sort of dialogue at least about them giving mixed signals if they give the bouquet when not much time has passed since they gave the bracelet (though if they're at 10 hearts, then it doesn't matter anyway, heh). I wouldn't think that would be hard to code, but...yeah. I hear ya. No real need for new scenes, and the 8 heart scenes are still mostly platonic (though it's pretty obvious they have feelings for you), so I don't think there's much of a need to deactivate those, as well. The only one that's pretty blatant and can't really be written off as "Just good friends" is Abby's...but the mail you get the day after could just be her saying "Sorry, but it was embarrassing!" instead of what she says instead. ^^
ConcernedApe: "I think the ability to non-romantically befriend the marriage candidates to 10 is a great idea, the only thing stopping me from doing it is the large amount of work involved. It might happen some day though." I will hang on to the hope that he'll follow through.
Well, it doesn't SEEM like it'd be a lot of work if you just deactivate the 10 heart event (unless you give them a bouquet again)...but...I haven't looked through the code or anything, so I have no idea how complicated it actually is. ^^ I agree, though...hopefully he'll get to it someday, or someone will do a MOD that lets us do that...and he simply takes the mod and adapts it to the official version.
I read somewhere that people were trying to mod it, but couldn't find the code to do so. Something about it hidden in .dlls? I only know the bare concepts of coding, so that's as helpful as I can be about that. As far as the ConcernedApe quote.... Well, shit. Keep the hope alive, I guess...
